


Seating Arrangements

by darkling59



Series: Annals of the Incomplete [48]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Comedy, Dominance, heirarchy, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 01:26:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3550937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkling59/pseuds/darkling59
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because hollows really are that juvenile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seating Arrangements

To an outside observer, the seating arrangements in the espada meeting room would seem completely random. And this is, for the most part, true.

At least, it is _now._

Originally, Aizen tried to designate positions in the same way that Yamamoto did: the leader at the head of the table, ascending even numbers on the right side, and ascending odd numbers on the left side. At the time there was an odd number of espada so the numbers worked out perfectly (the ranks would only shift from nine to ten when Starrk was found, many years after the original espada were created).

Unfortunately, these espada were the ‘rough draft’ batch, and not very human (or very smart). They had trouble counting which seat was theirs and far more trouble refraining from leaping across the table to attack each other. Worse, they also got in fights over who belonged in what seat.

Then the next batch was made, the numbers were shuffled around, and even more problems cropped up between current, previous, new, and senior espada. It didn’t matter what method of numbering was used; someone always had a problem with it, and the meetings were never as productive as they should have been, although they were considerably more violent.

Thanks to the continuously evolving espada ranks, Aizen finally decided that basing the seating on rank was a bad idea. It turned out, however, that allowing them to organize _themselves_ was an even worse idea.

The one meeting he tried that, he walked in on an all-out brawl, including all of the lower espada, and with the highest espada already having claimed seats…Harribel at Aizen’s right hand and Barragan at the opposite end of the table. Somehow he’d managed to drag a chair over so he was at the exact equal opposite position from Aizen.

An Equal position.

That would not do.

After that, Aizen decided to assign the seating.

He started with a standard template: 1-9, with 1-4 on his left, 5-8 on his right, and 9 at the opposite end of the table. Then he began making exceptions, as befitted his purposes

Ulquiorra, of course, was shifted to be directly at his side, as a reward for good behavior and loyalty. He was the most dependable espada, and the only one Aizen fully trusted not to twist a knife in his back. Also, switching his seat interrupted the line of sight between Nnoitra and Grimmjow, making it less likely that they would fight.

Yammy was given the position at the opposite end of the table (the one Barragan had laid claim to). He was too stupid to see it as a sign of being Aizen’s equal, too big to really fit anywhere else, and it wasn’t like he paid attention in the first place so being so far away wouldn’t affect his performance. It was also a subtle insult to Barrgan; giving the position he’d claimed to show his power to the weakest of the espada. Although Aizen intended to modify the giant diez’s (novena, at the time) resurrection before the final battle; perhaps he wouldn’t be the weakest for long.

Barragan was placed just one seat to the side of the position he’d wanted so badly; and yet, he was much further away. Aizen purposefully put him on the opposite side of the table from the rest of the low-numbered espada, in the position that _should_ have been Aaroneiro’s. It’s unlikely anyone but Barragan understood how insulting this was, but Aizen was not above making political statements or punishing his underlings for attempting to grab power.

Aaroneiro was flipped with Barragan; he didn’t care one way or another and neither did Aizen. (Although he was glad the creepy thing was not close to the head of the table.)

Harribel, Grimmjow, Zommari, and Szayel were left in place.

And with the seating assignments, the absolutely stupid amount of tension being wasted on such a thing vanished.

When he found Starrk and modified Yammy, he was at first worried that the problems would start up again, but it proved unfounded. Since he wasn’t going to put Barragan at the opposite head of the table, even next to Yammy (not that they would FIT beside each other) Aizen simply shifted the other side down by one, putting Aaroneiro next to Yammy. There was some tension between Harribel and Barragan (now facing each other) but they both had enough self-control to ignore it. On the opposite (positive) end of the spectrum, Nnoitra and Grimmjow were now further away from each other and less likely to cause trouble.

It wasn’t until later that Aizen considered that Starrk might have some problems with Ulquiorra being in the closest (and apparently most prestigious) position. It proved unfounded; unlike Barragan, Starrk didn’t give a damn about power or politics and would have been just as happy in the least coveted chair.

Finally, FINALLY, his meeting room was peaceful and complete.

**Author's Note:**

> Because I needed to figure out why, exactly, they were sitting in those particular spots at the table. Aizen never leaves anything uncontrolled and their seating arrangement was too random to be in character. For some reason it bugged me.


End file.
